News

One of our customers was almost a victim of a malicious malware attack. The phishing email shown below arrived in his email.
The malware looked legitimate, and as the company often received courier notifications, 6 employees clicked on the link embedded in the message. 

The good news was that Computer Culture had installed a high-end firewall appliance which prevented the user from downloading the payload.

This attack also gave us an opportunity to test the same malware with our managed antivirus.  AV Defender came through with flying colours, blocking the user from accessing the link.

The attempted hack was yet another example of just vigilant we all need to be and the necessity to be suspicious of mail that provides a link that encourages you to click on.

Attackers have started to use Windows and Android malware to hack into embedded devices, dispelling the widely held belief that if such devices are not directly exposed to the Internet they're less vulnerable.

Researchers from Russian antivirus vendor Doctor Web have recently come across a Windows Trojan program that was designed to gain access to embedded devices using brute-force methods and to install the Mirai malware on them.


Mirai is a malware program for Linux-based internet-of-things devices, such as routers, IP cameras, digital video recorders and others. It's used primarily to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and spreads over Telnet by using factory device credentials.

If you have steadfastly refused to update your Windows 10 PC to a new build since launch, Microsoft has given you another 2 months reprieve to still get patches and bug fixes.

Build 1507 of the OS was to exit support on the 26th March, but Microsoft has now announced on Technet that version 1507 will continue to be serviced until May 2017.

Currently Microsoft plans to only support the two latest versions of Windows 10, and expect most users to remain current with the latest version of the OS via automatic updates, a practice which has been criticised but which means that more than 75% of Windows 10 users are on the latest public version of the OS.

PhotoScan is a new scanner app from Google Photos that lets you scan and save your favourite printed photos using your phone's camera. Picture perfect and glare free.... 

Create enhanced digital scans, wherever your photos are.

This is a great app if you are out somewhere and there is, say a old black and white photo of one of your ancestors. The app guides you through a process of photographing the picture in segments then seamlessly joining it up to reproduce the original photo.

For those of you using a Windows 7 machine, Microsoft has ended mainstream support for this operating system. 

There is no need to panic as your system will still work and receive security updates. Mainstream support mainly refers to free phone and online support, as well as non-security updates, which are offered for five years after the release of an OS or two years after its successor hits the market.

Microsoft won't end security updates for your Windows 7 PC until January 2020. By that time, Microsoft hopes you will have upgraded to the latest version of its operating system.

Microsoft often sends out important updates for their operating system and they’ve recently released the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, packed full of features requested by their customers.
This is an automatic download but if you don’t have it yet and want to manually download it, click here.

One of our team attended the preview last week of the new HP Elite X3 Windows 10 Phone.  This is HP’s latest venture in to the phone space, but they see this more as a tiny computer with phone capabilities.
The Elite X3, once back in the office, can be slotted into a small dock which has a monitor, keyboard and mouse connected.  The phone then becomes a desktop PC allowing the user to run the phones applications on the big screen.

There is also a “laptop” option which is basically just a screen, keyboard and battery which once the phone is connected behaves like a laptop.  This laptop device can be left in the glove-box of a car without concerns of losing data as the applications and data are held on the phone.

This is a powerful and small device which will be ideal for users who need mobility and want to cut down on the number of devices they use.

Microsoft have just released the Windows 10 Anniversary Update.
This update is being rolled out progressively so it may be a week or two before it is available on your device.

There are a lot of new features including being able to log into apps using face recognition.

The free Windows 10 upgrade expires 29 July 2016.

Microsoft’s Statement:
“We are excited to offer a free upgrade to Windows 10 for qualified new or existing Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 devices that upgrade in the first year. Once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current via Windows Update for the supported lifetime of the device – at no cost.”

Please call us if you have any concerns relating to upgrading or would like us to assist you with the upgrade.

MYOB have released new information stating they will be ending support on MYOB products still running on technologies, such as Windows 7, that Microsoft has ended mainstream support for.

It’s important to consider upgrading, as running outdated software no longer covered by mainstream support introduces an element of risk into your business. When Microsoft ceases mainstream support for a product, it ceases to fix anything other than security issues.
By continuing to use old technologies you also limit yourself to old programming and components up to a static point in time. In other words, using software that has been on the market for approximately six years means you aren’t able to take advantage of the improvements made in that time.
Considering your IT plays a large part in the operating effectiveness of your business, updating your technology to get the latest features makes good business sense.

If you have any of the following applications in your business practice, you’ll find that MYOB will only be providing limited support for any of their software packages being used in conjunction with them. 
- Windows 7 (all versions)

- Microsoft Office 2010 (all versions)

- Windows Server 2008 (all versions), including SBS 2011 (which is built on Server 2008 R2)

- Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, excluding MYOB AO clients with SQL 2008 R2 Express

You’ll need to look into making a plan for change however, as MYOB won’t be providing support beyond the 31st December 2016. This gives MYOB users some time to upgrade their IT infrastructure if required.

Feel free to talk to one of our friendly sales team to create a plan of action and ensure you’ll be operating on MYOB supported technologies in 2017 and beyond.